Humiliated Root: We can still win the series
Awful England sent spinning to defeat by part-time bowler
JOE ROOT remains confident that he can lead his players into uncharted territory by orchestrating a comeback series win in the Caribbean despite the utter humiliation of first Test defeat in Barbados.
No England side in history have won an away series against West Indies after falling behind, the challenge Root’s men now face after parttime spinner Roston Chase ushered them to a chastening 381-run loss with eight for 60, the sixth best figures by a Windies bowler in Tests, on day four at the Kensington Oval.
‘We are going into both games desperate to try to win. We are not here just to play three games,’ Root said. ‘It’s been hard to take this week, not because of losing but because of the way we’ve lost. So we are desperate to turn up in Antigua and put that right. To show that in these conditions we’re a better side than that.
‘It would be wrong for us to completely sweep this under the carpet but ultimately it’s important we don’t look too far into things. We’ve done some very good stuff in the last 12 months.’
England arrived in the Caribbean on the back of eight wins in nine and with signs — by virtue of their 3-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka preChristmas — that they had addressed their overseas travails.
IT IS one thing struggling against genuine West Indian pace but it is quite another to submit to a part-time non-spinning off-spinner with an utterly brainless display of batting.
England’s Barbados humiliation was complete yesterday and it was not their first innings destroyer Kemar Roach who did for them nor even West Indies’ fastest bowler in Shannon Gabriel. Instead they were undone by a bowler with a Test average of 47.61.
Step forward Roston Chase, primarily a batsman and a spinner who had taken only 42 wickets in 26 Tests suddenly becoming West Indies’ answer to Graeme Swann.
Not that Chase gained prodigious turn from a pitch that England were convinced would be full of spin when they made their illjudged decision to go in with two slow bowlers for this first Test and leave out the proven seam of Stuart Broad and Chris Woakes.
Chase barely turned a ball but still sent England hurrying towards their demise as batsman after batsman succumbed with a shocking display of shots after looking earlier as if they would at least delay the inevitable until today.
Remember, West Indies had left out the one specialist spinner in their squad in Jomel Warrican, who took 31 wickets in three ‘ Tests’ against England A last winter and instead put their faith in traditional pace and bounce to bowl England out for 77 in the first innings.
Now step forward Chase to take eight — yes eight — wickets as England were rushed out for 246 to lose by a whopping 381 runs in what represents a huge upset and a thoroughly deserved win for an impressive captain in Jason Holder and his proud West Indies team.
But much as this is a notable triumph for West Indies, this was an absolute shocker from England who remain maddeningly inconsistent and have now got off to the worst possible start to a tumultuous year which includes a home World Cup and Ashes. It would have been one thing if England had at least gone down fighting in their second innings after the embarrassment of their last score but after their openers, unusually, had got them off to a solid start, they surrendered in the most abject manner.
For once captain Joe Root was one of the most culpable in playing a truly awful shot against Chase that set a terrible example after Rory Burns had battled to 84 before becoming the first batsman to softly offer his wicket to Chase.
Predictably, Keaton Jennings had again become the first man to fall with a carbon-copy dismissal to the pace of Alzarri Joseph outside offstump that leaves his place hanging by a thread when England attempt to repair the damage caused here in Antigua next week.
Then, when Burns had looked a good bet for a maiden Test century, he left a huge gap between bat and pad and saw Chase find it with what you might charitably describe as an arm-ball but more accurately as yet another delivery that did not turn.
Root had been given a proper going over by Gabriel and survived being caught off a brutal delivery only because of the unsatisfactory modern umpiring system of only checking for no balls when a wicket falls. Gabriel’s front foot was well over the line. Not that the England captain could take advantage after seeing Jonny Bairstow fall edging Gabriel frustratingly down the offside into the safe hands of stand-in keeper Shai Hope, deputising for Shane Dowrich.
England were crying out for their captain to launch another of those middle-order rescue acts that they have relied on so often, but instead he tamely guided Chase straight to slip and departed clearly furious with himself as he left the field.
Root must have been even more angry with the rest of his team, though, as batsman after batsman perished to a bowler they should have had no trouble repelling.
Ben Stokes was lbw playing for non-existent turn; Moeen Ali, completely gone with the bat with one half century in 24 innings, completed one of the most miserable pairs in recent history when he fell in even worse fashion than Root and Jos Buttler meekly found a fielder on the on-side.
Only Ben Foakes was slightly unlucky, hitting Chase hard to short leg where Shimron Hetmyer held on to an instinctive catch and then, barely believably, the off-spinner had a seventh wicket when Adil Rashid was skilfully caught on the boundary by Kraigg Brathwaite.
It was all over when Sam Curran was stumped down the legside to give Chase figures he could only have dreamt of. England had gone down like a pack of cards in the most unexpected manner possible.
What to make of England? Their 3-0 win in Sri Lanka really did look like a watershed moment for them under Root’s captaincy but they have got everything wrong here from the moment they wrongly decided to leave out Broad and hand the new ball to Curran.
Now they have all sorts of selec- tion issues heading to Antigua while West Indies can bask in one of the best victories since the end of the glory days in the 90s.
Firstly England must consider the position of Jennings, who averages just 16.90 against pace, the lowest by any opener in history who has played more than 15 Tests.
The problem is a lack of opening alternatives, for the only possible replacement for Jennings is Joe Denly, who is surely better suited to a place lower down the order.
Denly had been pencilled in to bat at three ahead of England’s Sri Lanka tour but so bad was he in the warm-ups there that England had a hasty re-think and he looked no better in his one brief appearance in the practice matches here.
Really, Denly is lucky to be here and England would have been better bringing Jason Roy and giving him the chance to show that he could emulate Buttler and make the leap up to Test cricket without
extensive red- ball experience. Then there is the bowling. Surely they will not leave Broad out again, even though Antigua may be more like the low and slow spinning surface they expected here. They are in a pickle with only four days to decide how to save this series.
What a turnaround. What a shemozzle. How typical of England to let you down just when you think they have cracked it. Collapsing against Roston Chase was not what we expected to happen here.